U.S. Gasoline Prices Rise to $3.545 a Gallon in Lundberg Survey

The average price for regular gasoline
at U.S. pumps rose 0.84 cent a gallon in the past two weeks to
$3.5447 a gallon, according to Lundberg Survey Inc. It’s the
first price increase in eight weeks.

The survey covers the period ended May 3 and is based on
information obtained at about 2,500 filling stations by the
Camarillo, California-based company. The average price has
fallen 25.03 cents from the peak on Feb. 22, and 30.05 cents
from this time last year, the survey showed.

The increase is due to a combination of factors, including
rising crude oil prices, more expensive summer gasoline
specifications, higher costs for ethanol and an expected rise in
demand as the summer driving season kicks into gear, Trilby Lundberg, president of Lundberg Survey, said in a telephone
interview.

“All these items together indicate that we will have some
further, if only moderate, increases at the consumer level,”
Lundberg said. “We will have increases, but they won’t be
shockers.”

Gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose
5.3 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $2.8254 a gallon in the two weeks
ended May 3. Futures have gained 0.5 percent this year.

Gasoline demand, measured by deliveries to wholesalers, was
at its lowest seasonal point in the past five years.

West Texas Intermediate oil on the Nymex rose $7.60, or 8.6
percent, to $95.61 a barrel in the two weeks to May 3. Prices
have climbed 4.1 percent this year.

Crude Declining

Crude inventories jumped 6.7 million barrels in the week
ended April 26 to 395.3 million, according to data from the EIA,
the Energy Department’s statistics arm. Supplies at Cushing,
Oklahoma, the delivery point for the Nymex futures contract,
fell 2.7 percent to 49.8 million barrels.

Oil will decline next week after U.S. crude inventories
reached an 82-year high amid signs of economic slowdown in the
U.S. and China, a Bloomberg survey showed.

Sixteen of 34 analysts, or 47 percent, forecast futures
will drop through May 10. Twelve respondents, or 35 percent,
projected a gain and six said there would be little change. Last
week, 40 percent of analysts projected an increase.

Ethanol futures rose 8.6 percent since April 19 to $2.703 a
gallon on May 3.

The highest price in the lower 48 U.S. states among the
markets surveyed was in Chicago, where the average was $4.28 a
gallon, Lundberg said. The lowest price was in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, where customers paid an average of $3.20 a gallon.

Regular gasoline on Long Island, New York, averaged $3.68 a
gallon, according to Lundberg. Drivers in Los Angeles paid an
average of $3.85 a gallon.